Ecommerce in France

France is a prominent country in Europe as well as in the world. It’s part of Western Europe, and it is perfectly located, as it is adjacent to major countries like Germany, Italy, Spain and – although separated by a channel – the United Kingdom. There are some French-administered territories and departments outside of the European continent. These include islands like Guadeloupe, Martinique and the South American overseas region and department French Guiana.

Ecommerce customers in France

When ordering goods online, online consumers in France like to pay with credit cards. One popular way to do this is with Carte-Blue, a debit card that can also be used as a credit card. Two other popular online payment methods in France are Visa and PayPal. As regards the latter, there are more than 8 million PayPal account in France, which make it the third European country in terms of the number of PayPal accounts. The average French online consumer isn’t that keen on using alternative payments, but among those methods are Allopass, CM-CIC Paiement, Hipay, Moneo, Paysafecard and bank transfers. More tips for ecommerce in Germany can be found at EcommerceWiki.

A study from CA Com shows that 49 percent of French consumers purchased at least one product online in 2013. Consumers ages 25-34 are the one who are most frequently ordering products online. On average they made at least one online purchase every month. Almost half of French internet users shopped for clothing online in 2012. Travel and tourism is even more popular, as 59% of French online users have bought a trip or a travel ticket online. Other popular product categories in Frenche are (digital) media and consumer electronics. A 2015 study by Mediametrie [pdf] shows nothing has changed drastically since then. Fashion was bought by 44% of French internet users in the last six months of that year. This is followed by travel/tourism (38%), cultural products (35%), beauty/health (28%) and consumer electronics (28%).

The ecommerce market in France

France is one of the biggest ecommerce countries in the world. It’s ranked as the sixth biggest ecommerce market worldwide and in Europe only Germany and the United Kingdom are bigger. The Western European country has an online retail market that’s expected to reach 65 billion euros by the end of 2015. According to data from the Centre for Retail Search online sales in France account for 6% of total retail sales.

Big online stores in France

Expectations are that there are more than 120,000 active ecommerce sites in France. The most visited online store in this country is Amazon, with more than 15 million unique visitors per month. Other big online players are Cdiscount, eBay, Fnac and Priceminister. Whereas fashion is a popular product category, retailers La Redoute and 3 Suisses are amongst the biggest fashion players in French ecommerce.

Based on information from Médiamétrie/NetRatings, the top 5 of most visited ecommerce websites in France consists of Amazon, Cdiscount, Fnac, eBay and Voyage SNCF.

Latest news about France

December 12, 2017Packhelp, a Polish startup that manufactures custom packaging, has launched localized versions of its ecommerce website in France, Italy, Spain and Czech Republic. The company already sells to thirty countries across Europe, but is planning to launch more localized versions for these markets.

December 7, 2017The French brand Céline, the only LVMH-owned fashion label without its own ecommerce business, has launched its online store. For now, the ecommerce website Celine.com is only available in France, but next year it will roll out further in Europe, the United States and, in 2019, in Japan.

December 4, 2017So far this year, 363.439 new sellers joined Amazon marketplaces in Europe. Among new sellers on all marketplaces that Amazon has worldwide, 36.3 percent registered on Amazon in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France or Spain.

November 23, 2017Almost nine out of ten internet users in France will prepare for their Christmas shopping online. And over 70 percent will eventually buy their gifts online. The computer is still the most popular device for online shopping, although its share is decreasing.

November 8, 201742 percent of consumers from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden have used click & collect in the past twelve months. And one in four Europeans who used click & collect bought another product in-store while they were picking up their online order.